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Post by ajm on Mar 11, 2024 8:06:25 GMT -5
I’d bet Pavan would have her Olympic spot locked up by now with either Sophie or Heather. Why should that matter? Unless your definition of "top defender" includes 20+ people, neither of those ladies are close to being top defenders. I wrote Canada’s top defenders. If you think McBain is better than Sophie and Heather, we’ll just have to disagree. The point is that Pavan had better options available to her than who she ended up with. And that’s costing her a lot of points and prize money.
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Post by guest2 on Mar 11, 2024 15:10:51 GMT -5
Why should that matter? Unless your definition of "top defender" includes 20+ people, neither of those ladies are close to being top defenders. I wrote Canada’s top defenders. If you think McBain is better than Sophie and Heather, we’ll just have to disagree. The point is that Pavan had better options available to her than who she ended up with. And that’s costing her a lot of points and prize money. And if either of those ladies were capable of competing at the top level, I am sure Pavs would approach things differently, as she did when she played with Bansley for four years or as she did with Mel for 6 years. But why put up with the irritation when the only benefit is a 13th instead of a 17th?
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Post by ajm on Mar 11, 2024 16:10:18 GMT -5
I wrote Canada’s top defenders. If you think McBain is better than Sophie and Heather, we’ll just have to disagree. The point is that Pavan had better options available to her than who she ended up with. And that’s costing her a lot of points and prize money. And if either of those ladies were capable of competing at the top level, I am sure Pavs would approach things differently, as she did when she played with Bansley for four years or as she did with Mel for 6 years. But why put up with the irritation when the only benefit is a 13th instead of a 17th? A 13th in an Elite 16 earns you $5K. A 17th earns you 0. Shouldn’t that be enough? If all these women cause an “irritation” maybe the irritation is actually her. I love watching Pavs play but it bugs me that her apparent inability to get along with partners seems to affect her desire to win. Or at least that’s my read on it.
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Post by guest2 on Mar 11, 2024 16:49:49 GMT -5
And if either of those ladies were capable of competing at the top level, I am sure Pavs would approach things differently, as she did when she played with Bansley for four years or as she did with Mel for 6 years. But why put up with the irritation when the only benefit is a 13th instead of a 17th? A 13th in an Elite 16 earns you $5K. A 17th earns you 0. Shouldn’t that be enough? If all these women cause an “irritation” maybe the irritation is actually her. I love watching Pavs play but it bugs me that her apparent inability to get along with partners seems to affect her desire to win. Or at least that’s my read on it. Pavs played with Heather for 4 years and Mel for 6. MHP broke up with Sarah, not the other way around. (If I understand correctly.) The breakup came soon after a victory and the team had not lost to anyone other than Duda/AP since that victory. Sophie has played with a dozen or so partners and never lasted more than 12 events with any of them (Pavs' partnership with McBain will soon include more events than Sophie's longest partnership.) Not sure how any of that indicates Sarah is an impossible partner to play with. Brandie, the epitome of sunshine and light, has partner hopped at least as much as Sarah, and MHP has switched more often. But again you see a woman with an attitude more like what you would expect from a man being judged as "difficult" while the smiling, bubbly, incredibly inconsistent player(s) gets a pass. I'm a fan of all three players but how on Earth is Pavan seen as the difficult one when we have seen MHB consistently break down mentally, even worse than MHPavs used to. What is the common denominator in those two teams? And Brandie may be even more inconsistent and mentally weak. The Steve Sax of BVB.
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Post by ajm on Mar 11, 2024 17:49:35 GMT -5
A 13th in an Elite 16 earns you $5K. A 17th earns you 0. Shouldn’t that be enough? If all these women cause an “irritation” maybe the irritation is actually her. I love watching Pavs play but it bugs me that her apparent inability to get along with partners seems to affect her desire to win. Or at least that’s my read on it. Pavs played with Heather for 4 years and Mel for 6. MHP broke up with Sarah, not the other way around. (If I understand correctly.) The breakup came soon after a victory and the team had not lost to anyone other than Duda/AP since that victory. Sophie has played with a dozen or so partners and never lasted more than 12 events with any of them (Pavs' partnership with McBain will soon include more events than Sophie's longest partnership.) Not sure how any of that indicates Sarah is an impossible partner to play with. Brandie, the epitome of sunshine and light, has partner hopped at least as much as Sarah, and MHP has switched more often. But again you see a woman with an attitude more like what you would expect from a man being judged as "difficult" while the smiling, bubbly, incredibly inconsistent player(s) gets a pass. I'm a fan of all three players but how on Earth is Pavan seen as the difficult one when we have seen MHB consistently break down mentally, even worse than MHPavs used to. What is the common denominator in those two teams? And Brandie may be even more inconsistent and mentally weak. The Steve Sax of BVB. I think you're conflating difficulty to get along with and consistency on the sand. They are two very different things. Pavan has long had a reputation of interpersonal conflicts going back to Nebraska, then her well-documented messy breakup with Heather, conflicts with MHP and Scott Davenport, then unexpectedly dropping Sophie after three events and going on Sandcast and complaining about her work ethic. Because her on-court performance has been so consistent, Canada's top blocker for 10 years, or at the very least 1b right now, and still effective at the age of 37, it's frustrating that she's stuck with Canada's 6th or 7th best defender. Qualifying for Paris with McBain might be among her greatest accomplishments, but for whatever reason it hasn't worked out with those others, Pavan simply isn't achieving her full potential.
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Post by undisclosedname on Mar 12, 2024 6:30:43 GMT -5
Judging from Sarah Pavan's last matches with Melissa and beyond, it looks like she's been lacking physical fitness. Very slow, poor reception, ineffective attacks and many, many serve errors. And as already mentioned, she's such a headcase, she can be top tier, but if something rattles her, she loses it and implodes. I know she's 37 now and not in her prime anymore, but it's been such a sharp decline. She can potentially do so much better.
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Post by guest2 on Mar 12, 2024 8:41:10 GMT -5
Pavs played with Heather for 4 years and Mel for 6. MHP broke up with Sarah, not the other way around. (If I understand correctly.) The breakup came soon after a victory and the team had not lost to anyone other than Duda/AP since that victory. Sophie has played with a dozen or so partners and never lasted more than 12 events with any of them (Pavs' partnership with McBain will soon include more events than Sophie's longest partnership.) Not sure how any of that indicates Sarah is an impossible partner to play with. Brandie, the epitome of sunshine and light, has partner hopped at least as much as Sarah, and MHP has switched more often. But again you see a woman with an attitude more like what you would expect from a man being judged as "difficult" while the smiling, bubbly, incredibly inconsistent player(s) gets a pass. I'm a fan of all three players but how on Earth is Pavan seen as the difficult one when we have seen MHB consistently break down mentally, even worse than MHPavs used to. What is the common denominator in those two teams? And Brandie may be even more inconsistent and mentally weak. The Steve Sax of BVB. I think you're conflating difficulty to get along with and consistency on the sand. They are two very different things. They are not completely different. They aren't the same but there is a great deal of overlap. The biggest jerk on tour is easy to get along with if there is enough winning. To my knowledge, Larissa was never dumped by a partner, nor was EY, and Randy Stoklos never when he was near his prime. So when you have to play with a partner who continues to make ridiculous mental errors (Mel), one who either can't or won't behave professionally (Sophie) or one who can't seem to solve the simplest mechanical errors (Brandie) those partners, no matter how bubbly are going to be hard to get along with.
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Post by guest2 on Mar 12, 2024 8:44:26 GMT -5
Judging from Sarah Pavan's last matches with Melissa and beyond, it looks like she's been lacking physical fitness. Very slow, poor reception, ineffective attacks and many, many serve errors. And as already mentioned, she's such a headcase, she can be top tier, but if something rattles her, she loses it and implodes. I know she's 37 now and not in her prime anymore, but it's been such a sharp decline. She can potentially do so much better. Last two months with Mel, they won an event and only lost to Duda/AP after that.
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Post by robvolei on Mar 12, 2024 9:57:55 GMT -5
MHPavs was good while it lasted but Mel always wanted to play with Brandie.
I don't blame Sophie for Brandie breaking up with her. Brandie wanted to play with Mel. MHB weren't going to wait after Paris to partner up. They obviously planned a 2024 Paris run together while they were still playing at a high level.
Pavs has had one partnership since her split with Sophie. Sophie has had two partnerships since the split but Pavs is the bad partner!?
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Post by ajm on Mar 12, 2024 12:59:10 GMT -5
MHPavs was good while it lasted but Mel always wanted to play with Brandie. I don't blame Sophie for Brandie breaking up with her. Brandie wanted to play with Mel. MHB weren't going to wait after Paris to partner up. They obviously planned a 2024 Paris run together while they were still playing at a high level. Pavs has had one partnership since her split with Sophie. Sophie has had two partnerships since the split but Pavs is the bad partner!? I've said this before, but I don't think any of the Canadian women come across looking great with the way they've handled their partnerships. There have been enough rumors of animosity and back-stabbing among them all to make a middle-school lunchroom seem tame by comparison. And I'm sure there's tons more behind-the-scenes details that has never been revealed. We don't need to rank them by their interpersonal skills, but at least Mel acknowledged publicly that she hasn't always dealt with this stuff in the most honest or mature way. The end result of all this is that Canada is probably not going to be sending its strongest possible #2 women's team to the Paris Olympics. And that's truly unfortunate.
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Post by dunninla3 on Mar 24, 2024 11:27:27 GMT -5
will update this later today.
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